Remembering 'Papa' Hemingway

From the March 28, 2021 Parade Magazine.

There was a three-part documentary on him on PBS directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick.

Some things you may or may not know about him:

**  In Spain, in the 1920s and 1930s, he became fascinated with bullfighting and worked as a journalist covering the Spanish Civil War.  It was here that he picked up the nickname "Papa."

**  Hemingway survived two plane crashes in two days in 1954.  Newspapers reported his death, so he was able to read his own obituary.

**  An expert fisherman, in 1938 he set a world record by catching seven marlins in one day.

**  He was grandfather of two actress-models Margaux and Mariel Hemingway.

**  He wrote the last page of "A Farewell to Arms," based on his experiences in World War I, 39 times.

**  Hemingway loved polydactyl cats (cats having six or more toes on each foot).

One thing I had planned on doing after I retired from teaching was to read all Hemingway's books.  But then I got blogged in as it were.  So, the only one I have read was "The Old Man and the Sea: which I read for English class in high school.

He may or may not have written "The Old Man and the Sea" in Cubero, New Mexico, on Route 66.  See the May 8 post in my RoadDog's RoadLog Blog.

--CootHem

Ten Incredible Facts About Ernest Hemingway-- Part 2

6.  He fought ORSON WELLES..

5.   He was quite the CAT PERSON and had those famous six-toed cats in Key West.

4.  He believed he was under GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE.

3.  He really was under GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE.

2.  He was a spy for the KGB.

1.  HUNTER S. THOMPSON investigated his suicide, but ended up stealing his stuff.

Pretty Interesting reading.  --DaCoot

Ten Incredible Facts About Ernest Hemingway-- Part 1

From the May 31, 2014, Listverse by Aaron Short.

As always, more info and pictures at the site.

10.  He used to fight people for JAMES JOYCE, one of his best friends.  In Paris they'd go drinking together and Joyce tended to be a nasty drunk and started bar fights, but wasn't much of a fighter, so Hemingway often stood in for him.

9.  He was an EXTREME FISHERMAN who would kill sharks with machine guns.

8.  He hunted U-BOATS in the HOOLIGAN NAVY during World War II  (more on this in my World War II blog, Tattooed on Your Soul today.

7.  He went ROGUE while a WAR CORRESPONDENT in 1944.  More on this story in my WWII blog today.

--Cooter

Hemingway's House for Sale-- Part 2

Some of the writing Hemingway did inthe house was done in an area of the third floor that faces south which was his room until he graduated from high school and went to Kansas City to be a reporter for that city's Star newspaper.

In 1919, he returned for a few months to recuperate from wounds he sustained in World War I when he was an ambulance driver. Also, there was a broken heart from a nurse he had fallen in love with.

These experiences led to his book "A Farewell to Arms."

From there, Hemingway went on to write magnificent books while being married four times, battling alcoholism and mental illness before committing suicide in 1961.

Kathy Fitzgerald, who lived on the first floor of the Hemingway house from 1977 to 2010, said that a lotof interesting people would stop by over the years as well as tour buses with a lot of people from foreign countries.

Still Have to Buy That Gas. Sorry Ernest. --DaCoot

Got an Extra $525,000?: Hemingway's House For Sale-- Part 1

From the Feb.26th Chicago Tribune "Hemingway's House in Wright's Shadow" by Ted Gregory.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, and spent much of his first twenty years in that town outside of Chicago. His boyhood home, essentially a three-flat, was put up for sale a couple weeks ago for $525,000.

The 4,200 square-foot home was designed in part by Hemingway's mother, Grace, who lived there until 1936, eight years after her husband committed suicide in their second-floor bedroom.

After that, it was divided into three apartments. In 2001, the Hemingway Foundation bought the home for $525,000. There were plans to turn it into "a unique and dynamic cultural center" but that didn't come to pass.

Ernest Hemingway lived here from age 7 to 17. However, his prominence is overshadowed by that of another Oak Park resident, Frank Lloyd Wright.

I'd Buy It, But Have to Put Gas in the Tank. --Cooter